Joker (character)
| The Joker | |
|---|---|
| File:Manwholaughs.jpg The Joker.
Art by Doug Mahnke | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Batman #1 (Spring 1940)[1] |
| Created by | Bill Finger Bob Kane Jerry Robinson |
| In-story information | |
| Team affiliations | Injustice Gang |
| Notable aliases | Red Hood, Joseph "Joe" Kerr, Clem Rusty |
| Abilities | - Criminal Genius - Skilled chemist - Very agile - Deceptively strong |
The Joker is a fictional character, a DC Comics supervillain widely considered to be Batman's archenemy. He was first introduced in Batman #1 (Spring 1940) and has remained consistently popular.
The Joker is a master criminal with a clown-like appearance. Initially portrayed as a violent sociopath who murders people for his own amusement, the Joker, later in the 1940s, began to be written as a goofy trickster-thief. That characterization continued through the late-1950s and 1960s before the character became again depicted as a vicious, psychopathic killer. The Joker has been responsible for numerous tragedies in Batman's life, including the paralysis of Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) and the murders of Jason Todd (the second Robin) and Jim Gordon's second wife Sarah Essen.
Interpretations of the Joker in other media include Cesar Romero's in the 1960s Batman television series, Jack Nicholson's in Tim Burton's Batman (1989 film), and Mark Hamill's in Batman: The Animated Series and other DC Animated Universe shows. As played by Nicholson, The Joker ranks #45 in the American Film Institute's list of the top 50 film villains of all time. Heath Ledger signed to play the Joker in July 2006, for director Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins sequel, The Dark Knight.[2]
Publication history
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Originally conceived as an evil "court-jester" type, the character was initially rejected by studio writer Bill Finger as being "too clownish," but he later relayed the idea to Bob Kane. Kane, who started out as a gag artist, loved the concept and encouraged its production. Finger found a photograph of actor Conrad Veidt wearing make-up for the silent film The Man Who Laughs, and it was from this photograph that the Joker was modeled. This influence was referenced in the graphic novel Batman: The Man Who Laughs, a retelling of the first Joker story from 1940.
The credit for creation of the Joker is disputed. Kane responded in a 1994 interview to claims that Jerry Robinson created the character:
Bill Finger and I created the Joker. Bill was the writer. Jerry Robinson came to me with a playing card of the Joker. That's the way I sum it up. [The Joker] looks like Conrad Veidt — you know, the actor in The Man Who Laughs, [the 1928 movie based on the novel] by Victor Hugo. [...] Bill Finger had a book with a photograph of Conrad Veidt and showed it to me and said, 'Here's the Joker'. Jerry Robinson had absolutely nothing to do with it. But he'll always say he created it till he dies. He brought in a playing card, which we used for a couple of issues for him [the Joker] to use as his playing card".[3]
In his initial dozen or so appearances, starting with Batman #1 (1940), the Joker was a straightforward spree killer/mass murderer, with a bizarre appearance modeled after the symbol of the Joker known from playing cards. It is of note that in his second appearance he was actually slated to be killed off, with the final page detailing the villain accidentally stabbing himself, lying dead as Batman and Robin run off into the night. DC editor Whitney Ellsworth thought the Joker was too good a character to kill off, suggesting that he be spared. A hastily drawn panel, calculated to imply that the Joker was still alive, was subsequently added to the comic.
For the next several appearances, the Joker often escaped capture but suffered an apparent death (falling off a cliff, being caught in a burning building, etc.), from which his body was not recovered. In these first dozen adventures, the Joker killed close to three dozen people, impressive for a villain who didn't use giant robots, mutant monsters, or space lasers, as was the status quo between 1940 until around 1942. Ironically, the turning point came in "Joker Walks the Last Mile" (Detective Comics #64), when the Joker was actually executed in the electric chair only to be chemically revived by henchmen.
While the Joker was back, he was decidedly less deadly than previous engagements. At this point, the editors decided that only one-shot villains should commit murder, so as to not make Batman look impotent in his inability to punish such recurring foes as the Joker or the Penguin. As the Batman comics softened their tone, the Joker shifted towards a harmless, cackling nuisance. He quickly became the most popular villain and was used frequently during the Golden Age of Comic Books. The use of the character lessened somewhat by the late 1950s, and disappeared almost entirely when Julius Schwartz took over editorship of the Batman comics in 1964.
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In 1973, the character was revived and profoundly revised in the Batman comic stories by Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams. Beginning in Batman #251, with the story "The Joker's Five Way Revenge", the Joker becomes a homicidal maniac who casually murders people on a whim, while enjoying battles of wits with Batman. This take on the character has taken prominence since. Steve Englehart, in his short but well-received run on the book, added elements deepening the severity of the Joker's insanity.
Joker even had his own nine-issue series during the 1970s in which he faces off against a variety of foes, both superheroes and supervillains. Although he was the protagonist of the series, certain issues feature just as much murder as those in which he was the antagonist; of the nine issues, he commits murder in seven. The development of the Joker as a sociopath continues with the issues "A Death in the Family" (in which readers voted for the character to kill off Jason Todd) and The Killing Joke in 1988, redefining the character for DC's Modern Age after the company wide reboot following Crisis on Infinite Earths.
A major addition to the character was the introduction of Harley Quinn. Originally introduced in Batman: The Animated Series, Quinn is a clinical psychiatrist who falls hopelessly in love with the Joker in Arkham Asylum and now serves as his loyal, if daffy, sidekick, costumed in a skintight harlequin suit. Their relationship often resembles that of an abusive domestic relationship, with the Joker insulting, hurting, or even attempting to kill Quinn, who remains undaunted in her devotion. She was popular enough to be integrated into the comics in 1999 and a modified version of the character (less goofy, but still criminally insane and utterly committed to the Joker) was also featured on the short-lived live-action TV series Birds of Prey.
Fictional character biography
Origin
Detective Comics #168 (February 1951) revealed that he had been a criminal known as the Red Hood. In the story, the Red Hood falls into a vat of chemicals while escaping from Batman. He emerges with white skin, green hair, and a bizarre grin.
Though many have been related, a definitive history of the Joker has never been established in the comics, and his true name has never been confirmed. The most widely cited backstory can be seen in Alan Moore's The Killing Joke. It depicts him as originally being an engineer at a chemical plant who quit his job to pursue his dream of being a stand-up comedian, only to fail miserably. Desperate to support his pregnant wife, the man agrees to help two criminals break into the plant where he was formerly employed. In this version of the story, the Red Hood persona is given to the inside man of every job (thus it is never the same man twice); this makes the leader appear to be the inside man, allowing the two ring-leaders to escape. During the planning, police contact him and inform him that his wife has died in a household accident.
Stricken with grief, he attempts to back out of the plan, but the criminals strong-arm him into keeping his promise. As soon as they enter the plant, however, they are immediately caught by security and a fatal shoot-out ensues, in which the two criminals are killed. As he tries to escape, he is confronted by Batman, who is investigating the disturbance. Terrified, the engineer leaps over a rail and plummets into a vat of chemicals. When he surfaces in the nearby reservoir, he removes the hood and sees his reflection: bleached chalk-white skin, ruby-red lips, and green hair. These events, coupled with his other misfortunes that day, drive the engineer completely insane, resulting in the birth of the Joker.
The story "Pushback" (Batman: Gotham Knights # 50-55), supports part of this version of the Joker's origin story. In it, a witness (who coincidentally turns out to be Edward Nigma, a.k.a. The Riddler) recounts that the Joker's wife was kidnapped and murdered by the criminals in order to force the engineer into performing the crime. In this version, the Joker was called Jack.
No recounting of the Joker's origin has been definitive, however, as he has been portrayed as lying so often about his former life that he himself is confused as to what actually happened. As he says in The Killing Joke: "Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another... if I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!"
Criminal career
From the Joker's first appearance in Batman #1, he has been willing (and eager) to wreak as much havoc as possible upon innocent people in order to claim the mantle of Gotham City's greatest criminal mastermind. Throughout his decades-long war with Batman, he has committed crimes both whimsical and inhumanly brutal, all with a logic and reasoning that, in Batman's words, "make sense to him alone."
In The Killing Joke, the Joker appears at Commissioner Jim Gordon's home one night and shoots Barbara Gordon (a.k.a. Batgirl) in the stomach at close range, paralyzing her. He then kidnaps the Commissioner. The Joker strips Barbara naked and takes photographs of her injured body, which he later shows Gordon in an attempt to drive him insane; Joker seeks to prove that any man can have "one really bad day" and become just like him. Batman rescues Gordon before pursuing the Joker, eventually cornering him on the rooftop. Batman tries one final time to reach his old foe, offering to rehabilitate him. The Joker refuses, but shows his appreciation by sharing a joke with Batman. The two begin to laugh before Joker allows himself to be taken back to Arkham.
One of the Joker's biggest impacts on Batman's life was the murder of Jason Todd, the second Robin, in the story "A Death in the Family." In the search for his birth mother, Jason Todd discovers that she is working in an African refuge camp and is being blackmailed by the Joker to help him steal medical supplies. She ends up betraying her son to keep from having her crime exposed, leading to Jason's brutal beating by the Joker with a crowbar. The Joker locks Jason and his mother in the warehouse where the assault took place and blows it up just as Batman arrives. At this point, readers were supposed to vote on whether they wanted Jason Todd to survive the blast. They voted for him to die, hence Batman finds Jason's lifeless body. Jason's death has haunted him since and has intensified his obsession with his archenemy.
In "The Devil's Advocate", Joker is convicted of a murder spree where all the victims were left with the Joker's trademark grin from licking certain comedy themed stamps. Though normally Joker is sent to Arkham for the criminally insane therby evading capital punishment, this time the DA is able to get him to stand trial which he is ultimately found guilty and sentenced to death. However, Batman believes the Joker was innocent because his nemesis always takes credit for his crimes. Batman eventually succeeds in identifying the real killer who framed the Joker.
A psychiatrist eventually begins to ponder that perhaps the Joker is in fact perfectly sane, and faking insanity so as to avoid the death penalty. This psychiatrist is Harleen Quinzel, the future Harley Quinn. As she tries to treat the Joker, he recounts a tale of an abusive father and runaway mother to gain her sympathy. She falls in love with him and allows him to escape Arkham several times before she is eventually caught. Driven over the edge with obsession, she becomes a criminal and the Joker's on-and-off girlfriend.
In a company-wide crossover, "The Last Laugh," the Joker believes himself to be dying and plans one last historic crime spree, infecting the inmates of 'The Slab,' a prison for super criminals, with Joker venom to escape. With plans to infect the entire world, he sets the super-powered inmates loose to cause mass chaos in their 'jokerized' forms. Meanwhile, he tries to ensure his "legacy" by defacing statues in his image and attempting to impregnate Harley Quinn. The entire United States declares war on the Joker under the orders of President Lex Luthor; in response, Joker sends his minions to kill the President. The heroes of the world try to fight off the rampaging villains, while Black Canary discovers that Joker's doctor modified his CAT scan to make it appear that he had a fatal tumour in an attempt to subdue him with the threat of death. Meanwhile, Harley Quinn, angry at Joker's attempt to get her pregnant without marrying her, helps the heroes who rescued her to create a cure to the Joker poison, return the super villains to their normal state, and eventually came up with an antidote. Believing Robin had been eaten by Killer Croc in the ensuing madness, Nightwing eventually catches up with the Joker and beats him to death. To keep Nightwing from having blood on his hands, Batman resuscitates the Joker.
During the events of the No Man's Land storyline, the Joker murders Sarah Essen Gordon, Commissioner Gordon's second wife, by shooting her in the head as she tried to protect the infants that he had kidnapped. He surrenders to Batman, but continues to taunt James Gordon, provoking the commissioner to shoot him in the kneecap.
In "Emperor Joker", a multipart story throughout the Superman titles, the Joker steals Mister Mxyzptlk's reality altering power, albeit temporarily. In this form, the Joker remakes the entire world intoa twisted caricature of itself, with everyone in it permanently stuck in a loop, repeating the same patterns over and over again. One of the worst examples of this is the fate of Batman in this world, with the Joker torturing and killing his adversary every day, only to bring him back to life and do it over and over again. Fortunately, Superman's powerful will allows him to fight off the Joker's influence enough to make contact with the weakened Mxyzptlk, who, along with the weakened Spectre, encourages Superman to work out the Joker's weakness before all of reality is destroyed by the Joker's misuse of Mxyzptlk's power. As time runs out, Superman realises that the Joker still cannot erase Batman from existence, as the Joker totally defines himself by his opposition to the Dark Knight... and, if the Joker can't even erase one man, how can he destroy the universe? The Joker's control shattered, Mxyzptlk and the Spectre manage to reconstruct reality from the moment the Joker disrupted everything, but Batman is left so broken from his constant deaths that Superman has to steal his memories so that he can go on, apaprently transferring them to the Joker.
During the return of new villain Hush to Gotham City, the Riddler hires the Joker to save him, offering the Joker the name of the crooked cop who killed his wife all those years ago. However, the Joker's attempted revenge is cut short when Hush attacks with Prometheus, forcing the Joker to retreat. After Jason Todd returns to life and takes over his killer's old Red Hood identity during the lead-up to Infinite Crisis, Jason asserts that the Joker was not quite as crazy as he leads people to believe. Jason attempts to force Batman to shoot the Joker, angered at Batman's refusal to kill the Joker despite what he'd done. Batman refuses, however, driving Jason away with a well-aimed batarang instead. At the conclusion of Infinite Crisis the Joker kills Alexander Luthor, hero of the original Crisis on Infinite Earths and villain of Infinite Crisis.
In Batman #655, a captive shoots the Joker in the face. The Joker returns in Batman #663 after having undergone extensive facial surgery that has left him with a permanent smile and unable to speak coherently. While in intensive care at Arkham, he sends Harley Quinn to kill his former henchmen, having her use a more lethal version of Joker venom, in order to signal his "rebirth". The Joker has by now developed an immunity to this venom.
Countdown
In Countdown #50, Jimmy Olsen interviews an incarcerated Joker about the murder of Duela Dent, who had called herself the Joker's Daughter. The Joker states that he never had any daughter, and seems aware of the shifts in reality and the Multiverse's existance. The Joker appears as he did before Batman #655.
Powers and abilities
The Joker commits crimes with countless "comedic" weapons (such as razor-sharp playing cards, acid-spewing flowers, cyanide pies, and lethally electric joy buzzers) and Joker venom, a deadly poison that infects his victims with a ghoulish rictus grin as they die while laughing uncontrollably. This venom comes in many forms, from gas to darts to liquid poison, and has been his primary calling card from his first appearance till the present. The Joker is immune to his venom. The Joker is also very skilled in the fields of chemistry, genetics, and nuclear engineering. For instance in a miniseries featuring Tim Drake, the third Robin, he kidnaps a computer genius, admitting that he doesn't know much about computers. In future issues, he is shown as very computer literate.
Joker's skills in hand-to-hand combat vary considerably depending on the writer. Some writers have shown Joker to be quite the skilled fighter, capable even of holding his own against Batman in a fight. Other writers prefer portraying Joker as being physically frail to the point that he can be defeated with a single punch. He is however consistently described as agile.
The Joker has cheated death numerous times, even in seemingly inescapable and lethal situations. Though he has been seen caught in explosions, been shot repeatedly, dropped from heights, electrocuted, etc, the Joker always manages to return fully alive and unscathed to wreak havoc again.
Over several decades there have been a variety of depictions and possibilities regarding the Joker's apparent insanity, of which the following are a sampling:
Grant Morrison's graphic novel Arkham Asylum suggests that the Joker's mental state is in fact a previously unprecedented form of "super-sanity," a form of ultra-sensory perception. It also suggests that he has no true personality of his own, that on any given day he can be a harmless clown or a vicious killer, depending on which would benefit him the most. Later, during the Knightfall saga, after Scarecrow and the Joker team up and kidnap the mayor of Gotham City, Scarecrow turns on the Joker and uses his fear gas to see what Joker is afraid of. To Scarecrow's surprise, the gas has no effect on Joker, who in turn beats him with a chair. In Morrison's JLA title, the Martian Manhunter rewires his own brain in order to think like the Joker, and later briefly rewires the Joker's brain to create momentary sanity. In those few moments, the Joker realizes that he had to reevaluate his life and seemed to regret his various murders. He is returned to his usual self soon afterward.
Various DC Comics Who's Who publications state[citation needed] that due to his level of insanity, at times the Joker manifests a degree of superhuman strength. In an alternate depiction of the Joker called Elseworlds: Distant Fires, the Joker is rendered sane by a nuclear war that deprives all super beings of their powers. In Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #145, the Joker became sane when Batman put him in one of Ra's al Ghul's Lazarus Pits after being shot, a reversal of the insanity which may come after experiencing such rejuvenation. However, the sanity, like the more commonplace insanity, was only temporary, and soon the Joker was back to his normal self.
The character is sometimes portrayed as having a heightened sense of self-awareness that other characters do not, such as being aware of being in a comic book. This fourth wall awareness also seems to carry over to Batman: The Animated Series. The Joker is the only character to talk directly into the "camera", and can be heard whistling his own theme music in the episode adaptation of the comic Mad Love. In the Marvel vs DC crossover, he also demonstrates knowledge of the first Batman/Spider-Man crossover even though that story's events did not occur in the canonical history of either the Marvel or DC universe.
Character
The Joker has been referred to as the Clown Prince of Crime, the Harlequin of Hate, and the Ace of Knaves. Throughout the evolution of the DC universe, interpretations and incarnations of the Joker have taken two forms. The original and currently dominant image is of a sadistic, fiendishly intelligent lunatic with a warped sense of humor, deriving pleasure from inflicting twisted, morbid death and terror upon innocent people. In this interpretation, he is a textbook example of antisocial personality disorder; in a sense, he is Charles Manson cursed with a clown's grinning face and a grotesque sense of showmanship. The other interpretation of the character, popular in the late 1940s through 1960s comic books as well as the 1960s television series, is that of an eccentric but harmless prankster and thief. The 1990s cartoon Batman: The Animated Series is notable for blending these two aspects to great acclaim, although most interpretations tend to embrace one characterization or the other.
The Joker's victims have included men, women, children, and even his own henchmen. An issue of Hitman in 1996 stated that the Joker had once gassed an entire kindergarten class. In the graphic novel The Joker: Devil's Advocate, the Joker is stated as having killed well over 2,000 people. Despite having murdered enough people to get the death penalty thousands of times over, he is always found not guilty by reason of insanity. In the Batman story line "War Crimes", this continued ruling of insanity is in fact made possible by The Joker's own dream team of lawyers. He is then placed in Arkham Asylum, from which he appears able to escape at will.
There have been times when Batman has been tempted to put the Joker down once and for all, but has relented at the last minute. After capturing the Joker in one story, he threatens to kill his old foe, but then says, "But that would give you the final victory, making me into a killer like yourself!"
Conversely the Joker has had many chances to kill Batman but always forgoes them feeling that he needs Batman as a challenge.
The Joker's obsession with Batman, and vice versa, is unique compared to other superheroes and villains:
- In "The Clown at Midnight" (featured in Batman #663), the Joker states to Batman, "You can't kill me without becoming like me. I can't kill you without losing the only human being who can keep up with me. Isn't it ironic?!" The Joker says later, "I could never kill you. Where would the act be without my straight man?"
- In "Going Sane" (featured in Legends of the Dark Knight # 65-68), the Joker lures Batman into a trap that he believes kills his arch nemesis. Batman's apparent death snaps the Joker back to sanity and prompts him to undergo plastic surgery in order to look like a normal human being. The Joker attempts to lead a normal, honest life, donning the name Joseph Kerr (a pun on his criminal moniker) and engaging in a small romance with a neighbor. Normality does not last for the Joker, however, as he later discovers Batman to be alive, which drives him to insanity. The Joker then mutilates himself in order to restore his trademark white skin, green hair, and crimson lips, and resumes his quest to destroy Batman.
- In another issue, the Joker threatens to kill crime boss Rupert Thorne if he uncovers Batman's secret identity. Thorne has Hugo Strange discover Batman's identity, but, when Strange refuses to tell him who Batman is, has him killed. The Joker, who is also bidding for Batman's identity alongside the Penguin, tells Thorne he was lucky Strange took whatever secrets he held with him to the grave; he explains that he is destined to defeat Batman in a manner worthy of his criminal reputation, and that no one else has the right.
- In Emperor Joker, although the Joker uses his new god-like powers to torture Batman to death night after night, he still cannot erase his foe from existence. Superman states that this is because the Joker totally defines himself by his opposition to the Dark Knight, and how the Joker lives in Batman's world rather than Batman living in the Joker's.
- In the movie Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, Terry McGinnis, the successor to the mantle of Dark Knight, says to the Joker that the only real reason he keeps coming back is because he never got a laugh out of the original Batman. When McGinnis began openly mocking the Joker as a poor comedian, the Joker becomes enraged by the concept of Batman laughing at him.
- In Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, a catatonic Joker becomes animated only after seeing a police report that Batman has returned to action, setting in motion a final confrontation where the Joker breaks his own neck to frame Batman for murder.
The Joker is renowned as Batman's most unpredictable foe. While other villains rely on tried-and-true methods to commit crimes (such as Mr. Freeze's freeze gun or Poison Ivy's toxic plants), Joker has a variety of weapons at his disposal. For example, the flower he wears in his lapel sprays (at any given time) acid, poisonous laughing gas, or nothing at all. In Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker and much earlier in "Dreadful Birthday, Dear Joker!" (Batman #321), the Joker has a gun which at first shoots a dart saying "BANG!", but then, with another pull of the trigger, the dart fires (in the censored version of the movie, the gun shot out laughing gas instead of the dart). His most recurring gadget is his high-voltage hand-buzzer where he literally electrocutes his victims with a handshake. Sometimes he commits crimes just for the fun of it, while on other occasions, it is part of a grand scheme; Batman has been noted to say that the Joker's plans make sense to him alone. This capricious nature, coupled with his maniacal bloodlust, makes Joker the one villain that the DC Universe's other super-villains fear; in the Villains United and Infinite Crisis mini-series, the members of the villains' Secret Society refuse to induct the Joker for this reason. In the one-shot Underworld Unleashed, the Trickster remarks, "When super-villains want to scare each other, they tell Joker stories."
The March 2007 issue of Wizard magazine had a two-page article (pgs 42 & 43) in which various comic book writers and artists were asked to give their favorite moments with The Joker. Kurt Busiek (writer of Superman) discussed a couple moments that helped to demonstrate the Joker’s insanity:
Hands down, the best Joker bit ever, to my mind, is when he tries to copyright fish, in Detective Comics #474-475. It’s such a demented thing to do, but he pursues it so intently, so matter-of-factly – pausing only to wonder if it might not work because people might stop eating fish, but reasoning that vegetarians won’t go for it – that it really makes him feel like a madman, rather than like a criminal with daffy overtones. And there’s a bit in Swamp Thing [#30], where the world is overcome with horror, and the way we’re told how bad it is, is that someone notices the Joker’s stopped laughing. Not a Joker moment, per se, but it works so well simply because the Joker’s so solidly established as the high-water mark for insanity in the DCU.
Alternate versions
Appearances in other media
Television
Batman (1960s)
With the success of the 1960s television series, the character was brought to the forefront along with the rest of the classic rogues gallery. During that period the Joker, as portrayed by Cesar Romero in 18 episodes, was a goofy, harmless character akin to his comics persona up to that point. The Joker of this series is characterized by a cackling laugh and comedy-themed crimes that were silly in nature, such as turning the the city's water supply into jelly, beating Batman in a surfing competition, and bank robberies based on stand-up routines. The only reference to his early life is a remark by Batman that, in his youth, the Joker had been a hypnotist. Romero refused to shave his mustache for the role; it was partially visible beneath his white face makeup.
Birds of Prey
Roger Stoneburner made a cameo appearance as the character in an episode of Birds of Prey in which Batgirl is caught in the crossfire between Batman and the Joker. In the series, the Joker not only paralyzes Barbara, but hires a thug (who later turns out to be Clayface) to kill Selena Kyle, a.k.a. Catwoman. Joker is said in another episode to be locked up in a prison far from New Gotham, however his old partner Harley Quinn intends to take over the city and avenge him. Mark Hamill, who voiced the Joker in various animated shows throughout the 1990s, provided the Joker's voice in the scene, and he was the only of the two actors to be credited.
OnStar TV commercials
In 2001 and 2002, General Motors aired a series of Batman-themed TV commercials promoting OnStar, a hi-tech car communication and security system. Actor Curtis Armstrong played the Joker in one of the ads.
Animation
The Joker appeared as a recurring adversary in the 1969 Filmation series The Adventures of Batman. Two episodes of the 1972 series The New Scooby-Doo Movies featured a meeting with Batman; the Joker was one of the villains, voiced by Larry Storch.
The Joker was planned to be a part of the Legion of Doom on Challenge of the SuperFriends, but Filmation already had the rights to the character for The New Adventures of Batman.[citation needed] His only Super Friends appearance was in The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians episode, "The Wild Cards" which featured a version of the Royal Flush Gang. The leader of the group, Ace, turned out to be a disguised Joker (voiced by Frank Welker).
Batman: The Animated Series
Batman: The Animated Series offers another version of the Joker's history, primarily in the episode "Beware the Creeper" and in the spin-off movie Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. Here he is a former anonymous hit man for the Mafia with ties to the Beaumont family. His boss is crime lord Sal Valestra, who is owed ransom money by Beaumont. But the gangster never speaks in his original form, and later it is implied that he killed Carl Beaumont. Years later, as the Joker, he murders Valestra, who dies with a strained grin on his face. As in the 1989 movie, he is not wearing any disguise when he makes his fateful attempt to rob the chemical factory. In both this animated series and the comic-book series based on it, the Joker believes Batman intentionally pushed him into the chemicals. Unlike in the 1989 movie, however, no attempt is made to connect the Joker with the death of Bruce Wayne's parents although in this series his name is Jack Napier.
In Batman: The Animated Series, the Joker made the most appearances of any villain in Batman's rogues' gallery.He is also the only character aside from The Penguin to not receive an origin episode, suggesting he has been a thorn in Batman's side for some time before the series' storyline picks up.
As in his comic-book persona, the Joker in this series is obsessed with Batman; he often says he is the only one who "deserves" to take out Batman, halting those who try or punishing those who he thinks beat him to it.
This version of the Joker combined past elements of his characterization from the comics, in which some episodes show him performing comical, less aggressive aspects, while others show him as a sociopath willing to murder dozens of people. As in previous depictions, The Joker is shown as a mass murderer, perhaps most notably in "Mad Love" in which Harley is examining a newspaper with text that reads "Joker still at large, Body count rises." Near the headline a picture shows at least 20 corpses, each with the signature Joker smile.
The Joker was also featured in the Batman/Superman crossover World's Finest, making a deal with Lex Luthor to kill Superman with a large Kryptonite dragon statue he stole.
In the "New Batman Adventures" episode "Mad Love", the Joker tells his past to Arkham psychiatrist Harleen Quinzell. When he was a boy, his mother ran away, and his own father turned cruel, beating him every time for nothing. After the little boy went to a circus with his dad, which was in his own words, the only time he'd seen him happy, he was determined to bring joy back to his dad's life. But even when he tried to make his dad laugh by dressing like the clowns, which he admired most, he was at his mercy. Unable to bear these loads, he ran away in tears. Along the way, he joined Sal Valestra's criminal gang and served as one of the muscle for the group. One night, during a break-in at the Ace Chemical Plant, he found himself face to face with Batman, who attempted to knock him out with a blow to the face, but this was ill-fated. Stumbling, the man fell over a railing and into a vat of green chemicals. When he emerged with new facial "improvements", he swore he'd do what he'd set out to do before he ran away: make the world know, and more importantly, Batman, how funny his criminal antics would be, and make them all laugh. The Animated Series version of the Joker also appears in the Static Shock episode "The Big Leagues".
The New Batman Adventures episode "Legends of the Dark Knight" is about three teenagers telling, often contradictory, stories about their conceptions of Batman's exploits. One story features the Joker in a tale inspired by the Dick Sprang comics of the 1950s. This Joker was voiced by Michael McKean.
Justice League
In the Justice League episode "Injustice for All", the Joker became a member of the Injustice Gang after Copperhead was arrested, much to Luthor's annoyance. Although, he was more of a "senior advisor", seemingly having the most experience being a criminal. Surprisingly, Joker, despite not having any powers, was the last one to be captured by the Justice League during the episode (even managing to deter the Flash with explosives and escape Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth by tossing an explosive doll at her).
In the episode "Wild Cards", the Joker placed a series of bombs all over Las Vegas, and the Justice League had less than 30 minutes to defuse while they were watched on TV all over the country. However, the Royal Flush Gang (Ace, Ten, Jack, Queen, and King) were sent by the Joker to stop the League. When all but one of the Royal Flush Gang were defeated and all of the bombs were disposed of, the Joker revealed his true plan: having suckered millions into watching the broadcast, to use Ace's powers to drive people crazy just by looking at them. When Batman arrived, however, he pulled the headband that controlled Ace's powers from Joker's coat. Ace, feeling angry and betrayed by Joker, used her powers on him and rendered the Joker catatonic.
Batman Beyond
In Batman Beyond, which is set 40 years in the future of the DC Animated Universe, the Joker has not been seen in several decades. There are now street gangs known as Jokerz, some of whom emulate his appearance and others who simply use some sort of clown motif.
In the episode "Joyride", a skeleton wearing the Joker's suit is seen in a cave where the Jokerz go for initiations.
Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker
The Joker appears in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, both in flashback sequences opposing the original Batman and in the "present" of Batman Beyond.
It is revealed that the Joker eventually recovers, and continues to be a thorn in Batman's side, until one night he kidnaps Tim Drake (the second Robin in the "Animated Series" continuity). Over the course of three weeks, he tortures and alters the boy to become his own twisted "son". Attempting to turn Tim against Batman, The Joker is instead killed by Tim when he tries to have him kill an injured Batman. Batman and Batgirl, in conjunction with Commissioner James Gordon, hide the body beneath Arkham Asylum.
Forty years later, the Joker returns to Gotham. Quickly taking control of the Jokerz, The Joker wreaks havoc on the futuristic Gotham leaving its residents terrified, well aware of his legend. It is eventually revealed that the Joker is actually the now-adult Tim Drake, whose body was being possessed by the Joker's memories and physical appearance. The Joker had used stolen Cadmus technology to implanted a chip encoded with his DNA and personality during the time Drake was held captive and tortured. The Joker's stored personality is eventually destroyed for good when Terry McGinnis uses the Joker's own electrocuting joy buzzer to overload and destroy the chip.
The Batman
A very different interpretation of the Joker appeared in the animated series The Batman, voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson. At first, he sports a purple and yellow straitjacket, fingerless gloves, bare feet (which are white with green toenails), wild green hair, red eyes, harsher voice, and athletic prowess that mark him as different from his predecessors.
Later in the series, he regressed back the more traditional garb of a purple suit and spats, but still had wild hair and wore no shoes, save one episode, where his shoes could elevate to great height. The Joker also moves and fights with a monkey-like style, using his feet as dexterously as his hands, and often hangs from the walls and ceilings (as the series progresses, these abilities do not appear as much). He employs the signature Joker venom in the form of a laughing gas. This version of the Clown Prince of Crime more resembles the campy, comic relief character featured in the comics of the 1950s and '60s. While this interpretation is generally lighter in tone, however, it still exhibits hints of a darker side. One episode in particular closely resembled The Killing Joke: during "The Rubberface of Comedy", he tortured a police officer to prove a point, quoting the comic: "All it takes is one bad day to make a normal man go insane". The episode also featured the building hatred and jealousy that the Joker felt towards Batman as the police focused more on capturing Batman than him ("You mean to tell me you consider this vigilante more dangerous than me, the Clown Prince of Crime?")
Film
Batman (1989)
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The 1989 Batman film, directed by Tim Burton, offered a somewhat different origin for the Joker, portrayed by Jack Nicholson, and at the same time made him part of Batman's origin. The Joker's real name in the movie is Jack Napier, a play on the word "jackanapes"; possibly a reference to a Spanish term for playing cards, "naipes"; and also the surname of actor Alan Napier, who had played Alfred in the 1960s series. Napier, the narcissistic right-hand man of Boss Carl Grissom, is having an affair with Grissom's girlfriend, Alicia Hunt, prompting the jealous crime lord to set his lieutenant up to be killed by a corrupt police officer named Lt. Eckhardt at Axis Chemicals. However, Grissom's plan goes awry thanks to intervention by both Batman and Commissioner Gordon. After killing Eckhardt and then catching a ricocheted bullet in the face, Napier tumbles into a vat of chemicals.
Although Napier survives, the chemicals wreak a horrible toll: his hair is dyed green, his skin is bleached chalk white, and a botched attempt at reconstructive surgery severs critical facial nerves, leaving him with an eternal "smile." After his mind completely snapped after seeing his smile, he assumes his new identity as the Joker, he kills Grissom and takes over the gangster's empire, engaging in a violent, chaotic crime spree, the motive being to "outdo" Batman, who he feels was getting too much press. He also tries to woo Gotham Globe reporter Vicki Vale. When Bruce Wayne learns about the Joker, he recalls that his parents were murdered by Jack Napier, realizing that the Joker is indirectly responsible for the origin of Batman. In the film, the Joker meets his demise. During an attempted helicopter escape from Gotham Cathedral, Batman uses a grappling hook to tie Joker's ankle to a large, heavy gargoyle in an attempt to capture him. But Batman seals the Joker's fate when it comes loose. Unable to break free from the heavy burden of the gargoyle, Joker's hands slip and he falls screaming to his death.
The Dark Knight (2008)
A Joker playing card is shown at the end of Batman Begins, where it had been used as a calling card by a costumed criminal who was not explicitly named. Screenwriter David Goyer explained in Premiere magazine that he plans to use the Joker as the main villain for the sequel, The Dark Knight. Warner Bros. officially announced on July 31, 2006 that Heath Ledger would portray the Joker.[1] Director Christopher Nolan has said that this portrayal will be inspired by The Killing Joke, and the character's first two appearances in the comics [2]. A recent photo from a Chicago set shows Heath Ledger partially dressed as the Joker, with long green hair and skin makeup that made him appear paler.[4]. On May 19, a Joker site mocking the 'I Believe in Harvey Dent' site was shown. [3] Through e-mails, pixels of the screen would slowly reveal the first picture of The Joker.
The site was taken down and replaced with a "Page not found" message. However, highlighting sections of the text revealed repetition of of "ha ha ha" in different sizes of font. In between these, however, were seemingly erroneous letters which spell out the phrase "See you in December."
Video games
Joker appears in the video game Batman: Vengeance. As the main villain of the game, Joker funds the research of Promethium and sends his men to wreak havok and cause explosions throughout the city. He nearly succeeds in defeating Batman during a confontation on a Gotham bridge, but ends up falling to his apparent death. As the Joker's demise is never permanent, however, he is later shown to have survived.
In addition to the above game Joker has appeared in most of the Batman video games. He has appeared in the various video game adaptations of the 1989 Batman film. He was the final boss in the Batman: Return of the Joker game and has appeared as a boss character in Batman: Dark Tomorrow, Batman: The Caped Crusader, Batman: The Animated Series, The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the SNES, The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the Sega Genesis and the Sega CD and Batman: Chaos in Gotham. In Batman: Vengeance and the Sega CD game Mark Hamill reprised the role of the Joker.
Prose
Published in 1990, The Further Adventures of The Joker (edited by Martin H. Greenberg) assembled 20 short stories about the Clown Prince of Crime. The content of its material ranged from macabre to campy. All of the stories featured in the book are considered non-canon in relation to mainstream DC Comics continuity.
Intercompany crossover
In a crossover with Dark Horse Comics, while vandalizing a museum exhibit, the Joker finds and wears The Mask, an item that grants the wearer a wide range of super powers and unleashes their hidden desires. Having no desires or personality traits that are hidden, the Joker essentially is himself but with near invulnerability, super speed, strength and other abilities. Using the Mask, Joker is able to defeat Batman and become unstoppable; the Joker quickly becomes bored with his power, but still refuses to remove the Mask. He takes over the Gotham television waves and broadcasts 24/7 destruction, threatening to destroy the world with bombs planted in every toy store. Becoming bored with this, he commandeers a nuclear bomb to destroy Gotham City. Batman confronts Joker/Mask, and his insistence that the Mask isn't funny forces the Joker to emerge and remove the mask. The Mask had been in control for some time after Joker put it on. This story is considered non-canon.
In a crossover with 2000AD's Judge Dredd the spirit of the Joker, following a dimension jump mishap, is transported to Mega City One where his disembodied soul meets Judge Death and the other Dark Judges and joins them as the fifth Dark Judge. While in this form (with his catatonic body back in Gotham) he is able to possess bodies like the other Dark Judges and his laugh becomes so powerful it causes several skulls to explode. The reign of terror is only brought to an end when Batman and Dredd arrive, capture the spirits of Death, Fear, Fire and Mortis and force the Joker's spirit to return to Gotham, much to his dismay.
In a crossover with Marvel Comics Spider-Man, a surgical procedure that implants a behavior-altering computer chip into the head of serial killer Cletus Kasady (Carnage) is also used on The Joker to turn both men into timid souls. Carnage uses his symbiote to short out his chip, but waits until Joker is nearby to leap into action, so that he can take Joker and short out his chip as well. The two agree to an alliance, which is quickly dissolved when the two disagree on killing methods; Joker favours theatrical methods of murder, while Carnage prefers numbers and immediacy in planning his murder sprees. Joker uses various tricks to escape Carnage and blows up his hideout in an attempt to kill Carnage. This fails, and a corpse wrapped in symbiote material lures Batman into Carnage's reach. Carnage announces he will kill Batman in front of an audience, until Joker shows up and says that he would rather unleash his viral plague upon Gotham, killing himself in the process if need be, to rob Carnage of the kill. Carnage becomes distracted and Batman knocks him out, while Spider-Man uses a webline to steal the viral container from Joker, chasing him into an alley and knocking him out cold.
In a crossover with Marvel comics that also included Batman, The Hulk, and a being known as The Shaper of Worlds, The Joker is recruited to help the Shaper, who is going mad and will twist all of reality if he isn't healed. Having used the Hulk's gamma energy to calm the Shaper's mind, the Joker winds up with near-cosmic level powers, as the Shaper makes the Joker's wishes come true. Despite his new power, the Joker ultimately defeats himself, when twisting reality ever tighter in an effort to defeat Hulk and Batman he drives himself over the edge, having created too many worlds in too little time.
Lego sets
Lego, the Danish building toy company, have released a line of licensed products on the Batman theme. The Joker is featured in one set with a purple Joker helicopter, while Batman pilots his Batplane. The Joker's appearance is similar to the standard likeness in the comics. Lego has announced its intention to produce sets featuring sidekick and love interest Harley Quinn soon.
Theme park attractions
There are a few theme park attractions themed to the Joker. The Joker's Jinx, a twisting steel roller coaster in Six Flags America, follows the Joker's dominantly purple and green color scheme, and his mad laughter is played during the ride queue.
The current version of the motion simulator ride Batman Adventure - The Ride at Warner Bros. Movie World revolves around the Dark Knight attempting to foil the Joker's plan of spreading his deadly Joker Gas throughout Gotham from an airship.
Bibliography
See also
Footnotes
- ^ Newsstand on-sale date April 25, 1940 per: "The first ad for Batman #1". DC Comics. Retrieved 2006-10-23.
- ^ Mewsarama (Nov. 7, 2006): "Heath Ledger Talks Joker", by Daniel Robert Epstein
- ^ Entertainment Weekly writer Frank Lovece official site: Web Exclusives — Bob Kane interview
- ^ Superherohype.com (April. 20, 2007): "First Look at The Joker... Kinda?!", Source: pictaker
References
- Joker's Realm (Web.Archive.org)
- The Joker's Circus
- DC Comics Secret Files: The Joker
- DCDP: The Joker
- Information about the Joker by Comics 101
External links
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